Visitor

Ross's sister Lee, who also has a
place in Sun Life, is in town for a
couple of weeks. Great to have her
here!

Centipede

After attending one of Ranger B's brown bag lunch talks yesterday (the topic was desert tortoises) we spent a few minutes looking at some of the critters in the visitor center. Here's one of them, a centipede. This one is probably 6" - 8" long. Like most things that live in the desert it's poisonous. We're not sure which end is the head.

	The centipede at the Usery Park visitor center.
	A closer view of the centipede.

Desert Discovery

Check out our desert discovery.

Motorcycle

We've always wanted a motorcycle. Well, maybe Ross has. Now our dreams have come true! Check out our new motorcycle:




Pretty cool, huh? And it was free! Ross found it just sitting on the side of the road while we were out biking today.




Well, it's a motorcycle, isn't it???? :-)

Yikes!

Ross's backpack ate Jake!!
Luckily it threw him up later.

New Phone

Karen was in need of a new
"GoPhone" (a pay as you go phone)
so we shopped around and found this
Samsung phone on close out at Best
Buy. It was $30 but came with $50 of
time! Basically they paid us $20 to
take the phone.

Snake Video

Today we went to Usery Park for one of Ranger B's brown bag lunch talks. The talks are now being held in the park's new visitor center. After the talk (today's was "All About Our Sonoran Desert") we visited with some of the animals on display. Not only was this rattlesnake in a glass cage but the cage was locked in a room so there were 2 panes of glass between the snake and us. Here's a video of the rattlesnake.

NOTE: If you're squeamish about snakes you might want to skip this one!

YACP (Yet Another Cat Picture)

The cat's IN the bag.

Microsoft Store

Today we paid a visit to the new Microsoft Store at the Scottsdale Fashion Square. We had never been to the Fashion Square and found it to be a VERY upscale mall. It's so upscale that they don't even call it all mall! Upon walking into the Microsoft Store my first thought was that I was in an Apple Store! Microsoft has basically copied an Apple Store. The layout is the same (although the Microsoft Store was a little bigger). The workers were dressed in the same colored t-shirts and had the same style name badges as in the Apple Store. They copied the Apple Genius Bar with their help desk. It even had a display showing appointments like the Genius Bar. They did have something different, large screens set up on tables that highlighted Microsoft's touch gesture technology using their Virtual Earth (think Google Earth) program. Very cool! But Apple had the same technology on the iPhone almost 2 1/2 years ago.

Disclaimer: OK, I'll admit it - I'm an "Apple bigot." :-)

The new Microsoft Store at the Scottsdale Fashion Square.

Guess Who!

Bike Ride

We're out for a longer (10+ miles) bike
ride today. Our first stop was the
library. Now we're at "Gyros Place" for
lunch. Excellent Greek food!

Picture: our bikes outside the
restaurant.

Bike Ride

Coming back from a bike ride to
McDonald's. It was "only" in the upper
90s. At least we create our own breeze
while riding.

Super Scorpion Search

Last Saturday evening we went to Usery Park for a "super scorpion search." We had purchased a UV light ("black light") in order to see the scorpions in the dark. Scorpions have a chemical in their bodies that causes them to glow under UV light. There were probably 75 people that turned out for the hike. It was just 1/2 mile out and then back. Along the way we saw and counted 9 scorpions. They were all either bark or tiger scorpions and were very small. In Arizona the general rule is the smaller the scorpion the more dangerous! The small bark scorpions are the most dangerous. If stung they're generally not fatal due to the small amount of venom they inject but you'll sure wish you hadn't been stung! What could be more fun than searching around in the dark for dangerous creatures? :-) We had a great time!

Hiking And Biking

One of our favorite short (about half an hour) hikes is the Merkle/Vista Trail in Usery Park. We hiked it today for the 3rd time since getting back to Mesa. It's been getting easier each time as we try beating our bodies back into hiking shape. But it was really hot today under the sun! Still a great hike but we'll probably wait until it cools down a bit before doing much more hiking.

We've also been riding our bikes more and more since getting back. A couple of days ago we rode almost 10 miles. Tomorrow we're planning on riding to the library and then to lunch. We LOVE riding our bikes around town!

New Rug

After a lot of looking around we finally
decided on a new rug for our park
model. Southwest pattern of course!

New rug - same cat.

HOT

103.1 degrees at 11:34am today.

New Friend

Karen made a new friend while we
were in Vegas.

Back In Mesa

We're now back in Mesa, AZ for the winter.

BIG WIN IN VEGAS!!

No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on
you. That's $4.00 we won on video
poker! We're on east street now!

Lunch At Times Square

In New York (New York) on the Vegas
Strip.